| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| adulterate |
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| SYLLABICATION: | a·dul·ter·ate |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -d l t-r t |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: a·dul·ter·at·ed, a·dul·ter·at·ing, a·dul·ter·ates
To make impure by adding extraneous, improper, or inferior ingredients. | | ADJECTIVE: | (-tr- t)1. Spurious; adulterated. 2. Adulterous. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin adulterre, adultert-, to pollute. See al-1 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | a·dulter·ation —NOUN
a·dulter·ator —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | adulterate, debase, doctor, load These verbs mean to make impure or inferior by adding foreign substances to something: adulterate coffee with ground acorns; silver debased with copper; doctored the wine with water; rag paper loaded with wood fiber.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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